North Daviess defeats Bloomfield 33-27 in SWIAC contest

Bloomfield's Peyton Karl (54) finds his path to the basket blocked by two North Daviess defenders, including Joe Riggins (right) during a Southwestern Indiana Athletic Conference boys basketball game Friday night at Elnora. (By B.J. Hargis/Greene County Daily World). [Order this photo]

North Daviess won for the fourth time in five games, improving to 11-5 overall and 4-0 in the conference. With Eastern Greene's 39-38 loss to WRV tonight, the Cougars now own sole possession of first place in the SWIAC as WRV, Shakamak and EG are all tied for second at 4-1.

Bloomfield has now lost 10 games by nine points or less and eight by six or fewer to drop to 5-13, finishing 2-5 in the conference.

"All of the boys had a really good effort," said Bloomfield coach John Bucher. "But we are really tired of coming up short in close game after close game.

"But the boys are getting better. We have been playing better the last couple of weeks. But we just came up a couple of plays short."

The game was close throughout, as evidenced by six ties and eight lead changes. Bloomfield led by as many as four in the first half and the score was tied 13-all at the half and 19 apiece entering the final period as both teams showed patience offensively, whether facing man-to-man or zone defenses.

Freshman Nick Crays' only basket started an 8-3 spurt by the Cougars. An offensive rebound and short bank shot in the lane by Stetson Townsend (eight points on 4-for-4 shooting) and then a layup by Kendall Wittmer, set up by an assist from Nelson Graber, put North Daviess ahead 27-22 midway in the quarter.

Bloomfield center Drake Vandeventer, who scored all of the Cardinals' points (eight) in the fourth quarter to account for all of his offense, hit his second trey and then grabbed an offensive rebound and scored on a putback, cutting the Cougar lead to 29-27.

But that turned out to be the final hoop for the Cardinals, who shot 9 of 36 (25 percent). They went scoreless over the final three minutes and 37 seconds.

Vandeventer came up with a steal and Holden Hamm missed a runner in the lane with 85 second remaining that would have tied the game. The Cardinals misfired on two treys in the final minute while Wittmer, who scored a game-high 13 points, made four free throws in the final 30 seconds to seal the victory.

"North Daviess did a nice job of being patient," said Bucher. "I have seen them play and this is the way they like to play. Our boys were pretty patient too, but coach (Brent) Dalrymple does a good job with his team.

"But we still had our chances. We missed about a five-footer that would have tied it and had a couple of other open looks that wouldn't go down. Wittmer was the one kid we did not want to foul. We even set it up in a timeout to try and foul Cray, the freshman, but we just did not execute it."

Andy Cochrane led the Cardinals with 10 points, including two treys. Vandeventer also hit two from distance and Ryan O'Neall made one. The Cards shot 5 of 19 from beyond the arc.

North Daviess was 13 of 27 from the field (48 percent) and made 6 of 7 free throws, including a 5 of 5 performance by Wittmer.

Each team grabbed 20 rebounds and Hamm and Crays each grabbed seven. Hamm also had three steals, two assists and three points.

North Daviess also won the junior varsity contest 36-20. Bryce McGlothlin, Kyle Doane and Curtis Hasler led the Cardinals with five points each. Caleb Bucher and Ben Vandeventer both scored two and Ben Hays added one.

The Cardinals will play at 6 p.m. Thursday at Terre Haute South.

BLOOMFIELD (27) -- Andy Cochrane 4-13 0-1 10, Bryce Lindsey 0-2 1-2 1, Drake Vandeventer 3-5 0-0 8, Holden Hamm 1-7 1-1 3, Ryan O'Neall 1-6 0-0 3, Payton Karl 0-3 2-2 2. Totals 9-36 4-6 27.

NORTH DAVIESS (33) -- Matt Miller 0-0 1-2 1, Stetson Townsend 4-4 0-0 8, Kendall Wittmer 4-8 5-5 13, Nelson Graber 4-8 0-0 9, Nick Crays 1-6 0-0 2, Isaac Swartzentruber 0-0 0-0 0, Joe Riggins 0-0 0-0 0, T.J. Miller 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 13-27 6-7 33.

Bloomfield 6 7 6 8 -- 27

North Daviess 3 10 6 14 -- 33

3-point shooting -- Bloomfield 5-19 (Vandeventer 2-3, Cochrane 2-9, O'Neall 1-3, Lindsey 0-1, Hamm 0-3), North Daviess 2-8 (Graber 1-5, Crays 0-1, Wittmer 0-2). Fouls -- Bloomfield 11, North Daviess 11. Fouled out -- None. Rebounds -- Bloomfield 20 (Hamm 7), North Daviess 20 (Crays 7). Assists -- Bloomfield 5 (Hamm 2), North Daviess 7 (Graber 2). Steals -- Bloomfield 5 (Hamm 3), North Daviess 5 (Wittmer 2). Turnovers -- Bloomfield 7 (O'Neall 4), North Daviess 8 (Townsend). Blocks -- Bloomfield 2 (Vandeventer 2), North Daviess 1 (Townsend).